Matthew Félix is an author, traveler, and podcast host. Matthew’s With Open Arms: Short Stories of Misadventures in Morocco has topped the Amazon Africa category, as well as the Morocco one. The 2019 BookLife Prize called Matthew’s debut novel about a young Spaniard’s awakening to his intuition, A Voice Beyond Reason, “(a) highly crafted gem.” Matthew’s latest book, Porcelain Travels, recounts his experiences in and around bathrooms encountered on his travels. Porcelain Travels won Gold for Humor in the 2019 Readers’ Favorite Awards and was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist. Matthew’s story “The Citroën and the Pomegranate” won Silver Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year in the 2019 Solas Awards.
How did you get started traveling?
My first travels took place in a faux-wood-paneled station wagon that, from its home base in the Midwest, traversed countless miles throughout the continental United States, as well as into Canada and Mexico. My overseas travels began when I was a high-school exchange student in Valencia, Spain and continued when I lived in Istanbul, Turkey after college.
How did you get started writing?
I have been writing for almost as long as I can remember. I still possess a collection of books that I wrote in elementary school. During that time, I also began journaling, my oldest journal being from a family trip to Texas. The first recognition I received for my writing was in fifth grade, when a story I wrote won an annual competition to attend a regional conference for young authors.
What do you consider your first “break” as a writer?
I had little, if any, expectations when I self-published my first book, With Open Arms: Short Stories of Misadventures in Morocco. Consequently, I was excited when the book debuted as an Amazon Hot New Release and became a bestseller in Amazon’s Africa and Morocco categories. Those initial distinctions gave me my first public validation and visibility.
As a traveler and fact/story gatherer, what is your biggest challenge on the road?
Facing the fact that I’ve come to the end of it, that it’s time to go home.
What is your biggest challenge in the research and writing process?
My biggest challenge to writing is finding the time and the space to do it; in other words, balancing my creative pursuits with my material needs and day-to-day distractions and responsibilities. When time and money permit, I run off for a month or two or six to go sit in one place and focus on my writing. Those are always incredibly productive times.
What is your biggest challenge from a business standpoint?
The business itself; the fact that it is next to impossible to live from selling books alone.
Have you ever done other work to make ends meet?
I have, I do, I will. At the moment that means developing and implementing online marketing strategies for writers, from websites to social media to Amazon ad campaigns; publishing books for indie authors, from editing to cover design to the actual publishing of the ebooks and paperbacks; and launching a new series of workshops, two for writers, one based on my novel.
What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?
Bowles and Burroughs fueled my curiosity about Morocco; Pierre Loti helped deepen my sense of wonderment about Istanbul; and, whenever I’m in Spain or France, I’m likely to pick up fictional works by writers such as Ildefonso Falcones, Amin Maalouf, or Gilbert Sinoué, which transport me not only throughout the Mediterranean but into its colorful past, as well. Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs are two specific travel books that made a lasting impression.
What advice and/or warnings would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing?
I would probably give aspiring travel writers the same advice I would give any other writers: 1) Do it because you love it; 2) Don’t just talk about writing, find your process, start writing, and keep writing; 3) Get beyond your ego and learn to love constructive criticism—if it’s any good, behind the scenes that article or book with your name on it will inevitably have been a collaborative effort; 4) Write it, refine it, and know when to cut the cord and move onto the next project; 5) Find a community of fellow writers in which to give and receive support, insight, and inspiration.
What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?
In casual conversation it can be difficult to transport someone to places and experiences for which they might not have much context or firsthand knowledge. As writers our stories allow us to share on a deeper level what we see, do, and feel on our travels, to take the reader along with us on those experiences. It is immensely gratifying to know that something I wrote provoked thought, entertained, inspired, or made a reader laugh; that it mattered to them, whether in some way I intended or another I could not possibly have foreseen.
Share This
